Another Life
by sabrielfaerie
Summary: Draco Malfoy left the wizarding world, his pregnant wife, and his career, behind after the Great War. He has settled in America with a wife and child, but now he must return.
1. 1

"Why do you cry at night?" My wife sometimes asks. "What is the matter? Are you not happy?"  
  
"Yes I'm happy." I say. "Happier than I've ever been in my life." Which is true, because in my life I have never been happy.  
  
"What happened to your arm?" My daughter sometimes asks.  
  
"Nothing." I say. I no longer wear shirts without long sleeves.  
  
I stand awkwardly in my security guard outfit, reminding myself that if I had stayed behind, there would have only been prison.  
  
"Why don't you go back to school and get a degree?" My wife says, when I cannot offer a plausible answer for my lack of anything beyond year five education.  
  
"Because." I reply shortly. She no longer asks.  
  
But today, as I patrol the halls, grateful for the silence of the night shift, something in the corner catches my eye. I make my way slowly over. "Turn around slowly." I say, easing up.  
  
"Malfoy! Long time no see. Not since you killed your father." My hand drops instinctively to my gun. I bristle at the sound of my long ago last name.  
  
"Who are you?" I ask tentatively.  
  
"Seamus Finnigan. Remember me? I stayed behind and cleaned up the mess when you ran off."  
  
"What are you doing here Finnigan?" I ask, wincing when he speaks the truth.  
  
"I came to find you." He says. Do I hear bitterness?  
  
"Why?" I have lowered my gun, but I'm still on the ready.  
  
"Because your mother is dying. Your wife said I could find you here."  
  
"How did you find my wife?" I ask. I made sure that no one would be able to find me. Ever. I moved to America. To Florida, the only wizardless state. I married an immigrant from the Ukraine. The country with the sparsest amount of wizards.  
  
"Malfoy. I'm a hit-wizard. For god's sakes, I know everything. Besides, that goddam tatoo on your arm makes tracking you down as easy as finding a needle in Coutney Love." He grins. I can see he is proud of his knowledge of Muggle drug addicts.  
  
"I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm not coming back."  
  
"Uh, yeah you are."  
  
"No, I am not. I have a wife, a daughter."  
  
"Yeah? I have a kid and no wife, and here I am, in the one country I hate, retreiving the one man I hate. Go figure."  
  
"Look," I say, lowering my voice. "It's not that I don't want to come back. It's that I can't."  
  
"Look," Seamus says, lowering his voice as well. "It isn't that I want you to come back, it's that you have to. Besides," he says, smiling. "Your wife has been waiting for you for five years. Oh sorry," he says, smiling innocently when he sees my face darken. "Is Hermione and your other children a touchy subject?"  
  
The gun in my hand clatters to the floor. I did not know I had other children. I do not want to admit this to Seamus Finnigan, but it appears he already knows. He leans down and picks up the fallen gun. "Twins." He says. "Emily and Christian. They're six and a half. The same age as Harry's and Ron's. Same age as mine, actually. But I suppose you didn't know about them either."  
  
"How do I tell Jessica and Marta?" I ask, knowing that I have to return.  
  
"Oh you don't." Seamus says nonchalantly.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"I mean we're leaving now Malfoy. There's no going back." And we Disapparate. 


	2. 2

I cannot believe I am back in Britain. The accent that I worked so hard to cover up has come back, thick and full. The magic that I suppressed so long I forgot it has come back with the placement of a wand in my hands. Despite the return to the wizarding world, we are riding in a train. I think Seamus likes the movement. He could never keep still as a child, I remember, nor, I think, as he tells me that my children are quite beautiful, as they look nthing like me, could he keep his mouth shut. A handsome young man with dark hair and two small, thin girls wrapped in a bundle in his arms boards the train.  
  
"They couldn't keep their eyes open past Manchester. Ron'll get on at the next stop." I have just realised that this is Harry Potter. He looks nothing like the scrawny, small boy I specs that I used to know. I suddenly realise that Seamus looks different as well. Everyone does. Harry lays the girls down and looks at me carefully.  
  
"I'm not going to pull anything Harry." I say. I am exhausted. I do not want to go through the same treatment I received before I left Britain.  
  
"I don't expect you to Draco." Harry says calmly, and I feel heat rising to my face. Harry of all people should know that I have no intent of causing trouble.  
  
"Why am I here?" I ask. Harry will know.  
  
"Wait till everyone else get's here." Seamus says. He enjoys being in control. He enjoys treating me like a child. I say nothing, only nod.  
  
The train slows to a stop again and Ron Weasley boards. He too, has children with him, a boy and a girl, they walk behind him, rubbing their eyes and yawning. They are barely older than Jessica, but they are so much smaller. They stumble over to where the other two girls are sleeping and fall asleep themselves. "How's life Malfoy?" He asks, not looking at me. He does not seem surprised to see me again, and he does not seem to notice the effect half a decade has had on me.  
  
"Doesn't appear to be getting better." I say, trying not to feel out of place amongst thse people.  
  
"I'd not assume that if I were you. Hasn't Hermione got here yet?" He asks. He is done with me, so I turn back to the window. I look down, a small girl is tugging at my pants.  
  
"Mister?" She says softly. "Mister can you get me a drink?" I look around and spot a cup. I give her a drink and she goes back to sleep. We do not stop again for almost half an hour. Harry, Ron and Seamus are talking quietly amonst themselves. They look at me occasionally, and then talk some more. Are they talking about me? I don't care.  
  
Finally the train stops. Hermione boards, and two small children. My children. My wife. She looks at me and stands very still. I rise and walk over to her, expecting perhaps a slap across the face. I get nothing. "How are you?" She asks.  
  
"How should I be?" I do not mean to be rude. I want to know how I should feel, and I will feel that way. That is how I am now. I wait until someone tells me to feel something before I feel it.  
  
Hermione shrugs and places the children down. I look at them, so small, so pale. They are their mothers children, and they always will be. I look back at the adults. "Why am I here?" I ask. They are ready to tell me now.  
  
"It goes like this..." 


	3. 3

"We need a spy Malfoy." Seamus' words ring in my head. We need a spy. I knew I had not been brought back to be a father to my children or a husband to my wife, but I had let myself hope that the reason was honourable, desirable.  
  
"A spy?"  
  
"Yes Malfoy, a spy. A sneaky little rodent to report to us."  
  
"When do you need me to start?"  
  
"This morning."  
  
This morning? I have grown soft, used to the Muggle ways of Friday at five and two weeks notice. "You need me to start this morning?"  
  
"Are you daft? I said this morning didn't I?" Hermione gives Seamus a warning glance and he quiets.  
  
"Sorry Finnigan, I don't usually pay attention to what you say as much of it is unimportant."  
  
Seamus lunges at me but Harry puts his arm out to bar him from attacking. Seamus smiles faintly. "Daddy's not here to protect you Malfoy. You killed him. Remember?"  
  
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=--=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-==-=-=  
  
I hate this. The way everyone turns when I enter the room, they way they mutter. The way they draw their wands. "I am not an informer!" I shout. "But Lucius was. I had to kill him, and I had to go to America to keep from being killed myself. But I am here now, and I will do whatever it takes to remove the stain from the Malfoy name." They murmur amongst themselves and then nod, welcoming me back to their ranks. I had forgotten how stupid Death Eaters are. I record the minutes and leave before everyone else, returning to Seamus' apartment. Flat, I correct myself for the hundredth time.  
  
I walk in the door. "Don't touch the walls Malfoy, I cleaned them when I got this place. I don't want your Death-Eater germs all over them."  
  
I walk along the hall and see the tiny handprints, decorations of a child. I raise my eyebrows as I walk in the door, and toss my notebook onto the table. Seamus grins. He is trying to get his daughter to eat, but she's more interested in her crayons. He shrugs, giving up, and walks over to me. "No wonder all your children are so tiny." I say.  
  
"More convienent," he says. "This one slept in a drawer until she was three. If it wasn't for your meddlesome wife, it would have lasted her till she was seven."  
  
"Hermione's not my wife." I say quietly.  
  
"If you want me to get all spastic and stuff, I won't. Quite frankly, I don't care about your social life. I don't care if you become a real father to those kids and I don't care if Hermione IS your wife. You're here to do a job for me Malfoy, and I don't care what else goes down, as long as you're not messing anything up."  
  
"I'm fond of you too Finnigan."  
  
Seamus lights a cigarette and offers me one. I shake my head. Marta wouldn't let me smoke. "I hate you Malfoy." Seamus shrugs. "It's no big secret. But I have a kid here, and quite frankly, I would rather house a man I hate than not have her." He smiles. "But love is something you can't understand."  
  
"I understand love better than you Finnigan. I left for love and I came back for love."  
  
"No Malfoy," Seamus says, all traces of humour gone. "You left because you were scared and you came back because we made you."  
  
I shake my head but say nothing. I am ashamed of the truth, and shame is almost more than I can bear. 


	4. 4

"It is in these times of darkness, when it seems to always be night, that bravery and courage are so fiercely needed. Your limits will be challenged, but you must remain ever vigilant. You cannot be afraid of the dark, though sometimes it is your enemy, it can also be your friend. It can conceal you when you leave, and it can conceal you when you return, but don't ever let it get too close. Darkness is impartial and it will cloak your enemies as well." Seamus looks up from where he is talking to a group of six or so hit recruits. "Alright people, you can go. Remember your exam tomorrow. Except you Johnson. Don't even bother."  
  
Johnson's bland face looks up at Seamus. He has a huge body and a very small head. "What sir? Did I do something wrong?"  
  
"No. I just don't like you." Seamus replies, barely glancing up from the pile of papers he's shuffling through.  
  
No one says anything in Johnsons defense as they shuffle out the door but I hear some of the conversations drifting by my ears. "Finnegan's so handsome!" A young girl whispers dreamily to her friend.  
  
"I know," the other girl replies. "And he's so mysterious." They burst into giggles and duck out the door.  
  
I smile as I walk up to Seamus' desk. "Your students are fond of you."  
  
Seamus grins. "If you were as irrisistably attractive as I am they would like you too." He realises then that he's talking to me, Draco Malfoy and his face sobers up. "So what did you get?"  
  
"Not much." I tell him. "They're planning on attacking Wimbledon though."  
  
"Why?" Seamus mutters. "No one goes there."  
  
"Muggles do."  
  
"Like I said," Seamus replies irritably. "No one goes there."  
  
"Your father is a Muggle." I say. He gives me a warning look with one eye and I shut up.  
  
"So when are they planning to attack it?"  
  
"Oh I don't know. Neither do they. They have a lot of vague plans that never get acomplished."  
  
"Ah yes," Seamus says. "Vague plans. Like my plan to retire at twenty three, have 2.4 kids a wife and a dog. I think I smoked pipe tabacco and lived in St James Square in that plan too."  
  
"You already have the patches on your elbows." I say. He glances at his elbows and sees the patches. He grins.  
  
"They're cloth though. That's what you can get me for my twenty-third birthday Malfoy, since I won't be retiring I'd like leather patches for my robes." It's one of those moments that's only funny because of the circumstances. When we finish laughing Seamus looks at me. "If you were a woman this would be our cue to bang each other on my desk, but since you're not I'll settle for being seen in public with you."  
  
"Thank god." I say grinning as we head out the door. We walk for several blocks before I look at Seamus. "Uh, where are we going?"  
  
"Hermione's."  
  
I sigh. "Do we have to?"  
  
"I wouldn't be talking Malfoy. I woulda ripped the prenup up if I was her."  
  
I say what happened wasn't my fault, I didn't want to leave. I loved Hermione, I couldn't let her get hurt. I couldn't let the same thing happen to her as happened to Seamus' wife.  
  
Seamus shakes his head. "Am I getting this right? You're trying to make me look bad?"  
  
"No. I am not trying to make you look bad. I'm just trying to explain to you why I would choose a different course of action than you did."  
  
"You are so righteous it makes me sick." Seamus says. He pushes his hair out of his eyes and bangs on the door in front of us. Hermione opens it, she has a laundrey basket on one hip, a little girl wrapped around her leg, a plate of biscuits in her hand and the telephone resting between her ear and her shoulder ("No mum, I don't need any help. Stay in York. Mum! Don't come down he-MUM! Are you listening?") She hangs up on her mother and lets Seamus and I in the door.  
  
"You don't want mummy to come down and help you with the little one's eh?" Seamus says.  
  
Hermione rolls her eyes at him. I remember how she and her mother argued. "You need a haircut Seamus," She says fondly. "You look like one of your students."  
  
Seamus grins and pushes the hair out of his eyes again. He kisses her cheek and swipes a biscuit from the plate. "KIKI! KIKI! COME DOWNSTAIRS!" He yells up at his daughter from the foor of the stairs. Hermione shakes her head. "CHRISTINA! OI! I'M GOING TO GO HOME WITHOUT YOU!" He yells.  
  
"Okay!" Her tiny voice calls down. "I'll stay here."  
  
Hermione bursts into laughter and Seamus turns to glare at her. He goes to take another biscuit off the plate but she slaps his hand. "Dinner's almost ready."  
  
She calls upstairs for Kiki and her children. My children. They tudge down the stairs obediently and she smiles at Seamus who glares at her. I look at the little boy and girl that come down the stairs with Kiki. Jessica had been tall and chubby, with dark hair and eyes. These two were tiny, with honey couloured hair and light blue eyes. Did they know? I wondered. Did they know what had happened before they were even born? Did they know why I had left? Did they even know who I was?  
  
"Go wash up you three, Harry and Ron will be here soon."  
  
"Are they bringing the little ones?" Seamus asks, doging around Hermione's arm and grabbing a biscuit.  
  
"No Seamus, they're going to leave them at home."  
  
He shrugs. "Why not?"  
  
Hermione rolls her eyes. "Because they have an once of sense unlike some people I know." She mutters under her breath as she walks by. I'm left standing in the hallway with Seamus, who's munching happily away on an Oreo.  
  
"Well?" He says, "What are you waiting for?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Go make your move and get your wife back. You can't live with me forever."  
  
I look blankly at him. I hadn't considered the possibility that I would never go back to Jessica and Marta. I hadn't considered the possibility that I would go back to Hermione. I turna and ush open the door to the dining room. It swings forward and I go in before it can swing back and hit me in the forehead. Hermione is setting the table by hand, neatly laying every fork and knife and spoon exactly straight, exactly even. "Hi." I say awkwardly.  
  
"Hi." She replies.  
  
"Can I help?" I ask.  
  
She points to the glasses lined up in a row. I put the blue glasses by the placemats that have dragons on them, I put the pink glasses by the placemats that have unicorns on them. I put the clear glasses by the plain placemats. "Thanks." Hermione says, not looking at me.  
  
"I'm sorry." I tell her.  
  
She sighs. "I know you are. I'm sorry too. But that won't get us six years back, and it won't change everything that's already happened."  
  
"Can it change what's going to happen?" I ask her softly.  
  
She opens her mouth but doesn't say anything. "I should go bring the food in." She doesn't look me in the eye.  
  
!~~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~! ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!  
  
We are sitting at the table, Harry and Ron have arrived and everyone is eating. "I'm Martin Miggs, The Mad Muggle!" Hermione's son Simon proclaims loudly.  
  
"You're mad alright." Hermione mutters. "Now sit downand eat your food."  
  
"Who's him?" Harry's daughter asks, pointing at me.  
  
"Who's he-" Harry's starts to correct her but Seamus breaks in. "Him's Draco. He's pretty ugly isn't he?"  
  
"Why's he here?" Simon asks.  
  
"Work." Hermione says. She wipes her mouth with a napkin and then suggests evetyone leave while she clears the table.  
  
Seamus smiles softly across the table at her and she smiles tightly back. "Come on." He says loudly. "I suggest we return to the parlour for cocktails and cigars. Come on gentlemen, ladies too. Never to young to start smoking cigars." The little girls giggle and everyone stands up, myself included but Seamus pushes me back down. "Oh no my good man, I don't think oyu're done in here yet." He whispers in my ear. Then he takes Kiki's arm and they all walk out of the room.  
  
I help Hermione clear the table and after the dishes are done I come back to the table with her and have a cup of coffee. "Is there something going on between you and Seamus?" I ask her, surprised that I'm feeling jealous of their easy banter.  
  
"If you mean is there an arrangement for babysitting then yes, there is something going on but if you mean anything more than that, no. There hasn't been anything going on in this house for six years." I look at my hands, ashamed and Hermione sighs. "Seamus has been there for me Draco. He's looked after Simon and Kathleen when I needed a break and he helps me out with things around the house. So have Ron and Harry. You've been gone six years Draco, you can't expect me to be able to take care of everything on my own."  
  
"You're right. I'm sorry."  
  
"You're not even going to fight it out?"  
  
I lookup at her surprised. "No, I know it was my fault, and I've done something wrong. I'm sorry. Can I ever fix this?"  
  
Hermione bites her lip and looks at me. "We got older, Draco, but we're still young. We're young enough for everything to be okay eventually." She smiles at me, an honest, open smile and I ache with relief. She reaches into her pocket and puills something out. It's my wedding band. I left it on the table next to our bed the night I left. I took nothing with me, not even a momento. A reminder of what I used to have. She turns her hand over and it drops to the table in front of me. I look at it for a long moment, then slide Marta's ring of my finger and put the other one back on. It still fits perfect. Hermione calls for the kids and they come scrambling back into the room. "Daddy's home." She whispers softly. "He's really truly home." 


End file.
